North Florida Sisters Accused Of Killing Their Teenage Brother
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A North Florida teen and her younger sister have been charged after they reportedly shot and killed their 16-year old brother.
The girls, 15 and 11-years of age, went to the High Springs Police Department on Monday night to report that their brother was dead, according to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.
Police called the sheriff's office and deputies arrived at the home in nearby White Springs and found the boy dead in the living room.
The 15-year-old's sister, age 11, somehow assisted in the shooting but didn't pull the trigger, sheriff's spokesman Murray Smith said. The older girl got the gun from a room that her parents had locked, Smith said.
A younger sibling, age 3, also was in the home at the time and is now in state custody. The agency is working with deputies to determine what happened and to help the surviving siblings, Department of Children and Families spokesman John Harrell said state law prohibited him from releasing details of any past incidents the family might have had with the department.
The parents were charged with child neglect and are accused of failing to supervise in the treatment of children, Smith said. He said the father is a truck driver and the mother had left with him on a trip. The home did not have a recent history of visits from the sheriff's office, Smith said.
Third Circuit State Attorney Jeff Siegmeister said he hasn't decided whether to charge the girls as adults.
Children arrested for crimes and treated as juveniles can be held in detention for a maximum of 30 days.
"Sometimes we can send them home after that, but in light of all of the facts in this case, we don't have any place to send the children," Siegmeister told The Sun. "I may be forced to actually charge them as adults to hold them in juvenile detention until I can work something out. I don't know all of the facts yet."
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